Tennessee wary of Ware, LSU running game

Derek Dooley and the Tennessee Volunteers know they need to be concerned with LSU's stable of running backs, especially Spencer Ware.
Leading the No. 1-ranked Tigers with 432 yards rushing and five scores, Ware is looking to punish the Vols defenders, like he does other opponents.


“If you come as hard as you can, full throttle, with it in your mind that, ‘You can’t tackle me,’ then you will break a tackle,” Ware told the Washington Post recently. “Every time you have the ball you have to have the mentality that you want to score, not just, ‘Oh, it’s a defender in front of me and I might get tackled.’”
For the second week in a row, the Tigers face an SEC team without their starting quarterback. Last week, John Brantley was out for Florid as LSU cruised to a 41-11 win.
This week the Vols are without starter signal caller Tyler Bray, who has a hand injury. Tennessee coach Dooley says there won't be any excuses.

"I don't care how many guys we lose, we're still Tennessee," Dooley said, according to the Times Picayune newspaper. "We fought (LSU) good last year. I know this: If we don't come believing we can win and playing to our capacity, then it's going to look like what happened last week. They are going to embarrass you."

“We just don’t look good, and we’ve just got to go out there and hit people and stick our pads down and run,” Dooley was quoted as saying. “That’s what good running teams do, and we’re just going to keep working on it.”

But the Vols better beware of Ware.

“Spencer just wears people down,” LSU offensive guard Will Blackwell told the Post. “He might be 225 pounds, but I swear he runs like he’s about 260 and when you’ve got a guy coming at you full-speed 20 times a game you’re going to get tired.”

LUCKY STRIPES: How LSU beat Tennessee, 16- 14 (video)

A two-headed quarterback: Say what you want about Jarrett Lee, and this blog has said plenty, but he can  actually move the ball. A sweet 47-yard bomb in the fourth quarter got LSU near the goal line with a chance to take the lead before the last-second theatrics. Jordan Jefferson's mobility, really his 89-yard juant on the first play from scrimmage, had to make the Vols at least think twice about him every time he snapped the ball. The only thing is, LSU, as well, had to think twice about it everytime he had the ball.

LSU's front four: Drake Nevis and the boys up front absolutely carried the Bayou Bengals Saturday evening. If not for a goal line stand, a turnover on downs and numerous blitzes on third down, Tennessee quarterback Matt Simms carves the secondary up like a turkey. LSU's line held its own going largely without starting defensive end Sam Montgomery who suffered a chop block early in the 1st quarter. Also, starting end Ken Adams was out. So, given that LSU's D-line was at 50%, they did excellent.

Referees: Let's be honest. Jordan Jefferson and a befuddled coaching staff all had to stare in horror as the final seconds clicked off the clock on Saturday. The game was over, and Tennessee players joyously celebrated. But a referee -- one referee-- the one that was supposed to make sure each team had only 11 men on the field, courageously, miraculously said the unsayable "Hold up. This game aint over." As a result, I'd like to buy the man a drink, if somebody could get me his name. Matter fact, I've got him -- and his immediate family -- at Chimes next time he's down that way, if he wants. LSU lucked out. Plain and simple.

LUCKY STRIPES

LSU BEATS Tennessee, 16 -14 IN WACKIEST GAME EVER

Some how some way, LSU beat the Vols in the craziest game in Tiger Stadium history.
Les Miles did all he could to give the game to the Vols, but, as fate would have it, Tennessee's coach is as bottom-tier as LSU's. Who would have thunk it?
Thirteen players on the field on the last play? And what referee would have even called that?
Think about it: The game is done, over. And a zebra stops the hoopla to deliver the sweetest news to Tiger fans since boiled shrimp went for half price?
Seriously, the Tennessee Volunteers deserved to win this game: Let me say that again, and louder.
THE VOLUNTEERS DESERVED TO WIN THIS GAME.
LSU didn't. Let's be honest.
The LSU Tigers manhandled the Tennessee Tigers through three composite quarters but still were losing 14-10 with 10 minutes to go in the game.
Jordan Jefferson continued his three-game slump and even made worse decisions than the previous three games, if that's possible.
Backup quarterback Jarrett Lee may have taken the starting spot of Jefferson in the process, sparking LSU to a first down inside the 10 midway through the fourth quarter.
But he then threw LSU's final interception.
Tennessee quarterback Matt Simms struggled mightily against a steady barrage of blitzes by the LSU defense, but he finally settled down and started to pick the secondary apart.
After being down 7-0, the Vols scored the next 14 points, and even missed a field goal.
LSU's defense outplayed itself, but was simply on the field too long.
After the game, Miles shouldn't thank his coaching staff, or even his players. He should thank whatever voodoo priestess through the dust his way.

Can LSU's offense beat Tennessee?

The day of reckoning if upon the Tigers, a bonafide, sturdy, rambunctious SEC home game is ahead for Les Miles' boys. The formidable Tennessee Volunteers, themselves searching for an identity, are licking their chops as they visit the Bayou Bengals this Saturday.

Well, the 3-1 Vols aren't exactly licking their chops.

Last week, the Volunteers gave up 429 yards to a UAB quarterback and receivers that flew around like meteors. Tennessee still won, but barely.

LSU will not pass for 400-some yards. 

LSU will not pass for 300 yards.

LSU is averaging 110 yards, dead last in the SEC.

"Offensively nobody is satisfied in our building," said Miles said recently.

As the fans' discontentment grows to the point of being disillusioned, Miles continues to put a happy face on the offense, I mean, they're 4-0, right?

"Our running backs are coming to life and our line understands the commitment to running the ball," Miles said. "If that characteristic maintains itself over time, we will be a very good offense."

But that "will be" may take a while.

Tennessee, for its part, can't keep its quarterback upright. Matt Simms was downed something like six times against UAB. He's been sacked 14 times in three games and as a result he's said he's kind of "mastered" it. Wow.

But Tiger Stadium is a terribly difficult place to play -- for both teams, it seems.

And Jordan Jefferson has not shown the gumption to play gutsy, confident football yet.

So, the Drave Nevis, the defensive line, and Patrick "Heisman" Peterson will need to score six or so.

Let's hope so, because LSU's offense won't put much points on the board.

Gators won, but Vols didn't back down

Let's be honest, Tennessee brought that wood.
Florida was still the superior team, and quarterback Tim Tebow still had control ... but not by much.
Tebow, for the first time this season, was running for his life.
Due to his athleticism, he can make that look pretty easy, but it wasn't. The Gators 23-13 victory Saturday over the Tennessee Volunteers was a moral victory for UT in their long journey back to SEC elistism.
For Florida, the mystique may be broken.
With the hard running of tailback Montario Hardesty (96 yards on 20 carries) the Vols almost had a 100-yard rusher for the afternoon.
Tim Tebow's streak of at least one touchdown pass in 30 straight games came to a resounding stop.
First-year Vols coach Lane Kiffin, who can talk smack with the best of them, was impressed him Superman. “I probably said it three times on the headsets, ‘Is the guy ever gonna wear out?’"
Note to Kiffin: Um, no, Lane. He's not unlike a Terminator, he's not going to stop.
"It’s unbelievable. Not only physically, when you hit him, but some of those (short, crucial) gains, he runs 50 yards to get them. He doesn’t wear out."
But alas the Volunteer defense -- which played admirably -- finally began to.
Tennessee held Florida to 323, which was good considering the Gators ran up 663 yards
on Troy and 624 in the season opener against Charleston Southern.
When the Gators smashed the Vols in the mouth, the Vols smacked back.
Symbolic of the teams' play was when Tebow and UT All-American safety Eric Berry closed in on each other in the first half - POW!
“I just bit down on my mouthpiece and tried to give it everything I had,” Berry said of the train-like collision. “All the power cleans and the squats from the summer, I had to use everything I had. At first I was like ‘dang, he done got me y’all.’ But I looked up at the JumboTron and we kind of hit each other and fell to the side ...You can call it what you want, but it was a good collision.”
Tennessee will win the rest of their games, it seems, if they can get pass Georgia.

UT's Fulmer Sure Knows How to Keep a Job

"Whether it's administrative support or friends that are in crucial positions, I appreciate how everyone has handled this and has been supportive," Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer said days before his Volunteers got smashed by No. 2 Alabama 29 -9. "That's been a real positive for us. I look forward to rewarding that support."
Ah, in Tennessee support seems to be eternal: To say that Fulmer, with 17 years at the helm, is in the proverbial hot seat is an understatement. There are UT fans that loathe him. Despite this, his squad was in the SEC Championship Game a year ago, losing to LSU, the eventual national champion. But the fall this season hit everyone blindly. Not that they've lost but how bad they've looked. Against Alabama on Saturday, the Vols looked like a PAC 10 team. Of course, many say this is all just what-goes-around-style getback for a coach that hasn't been livin' right, but that's besides the point. I've never rooted for the Vols, but this free-fall has been painful to watch. The perennial 9-3 season is soooo last year. Still, Fulmer amazes me how he can keep his job. That, is truly, amazing. UT's administration must really hate going through the motions of a national hiring search, because the job ... quite literally ... is Fulmer's to lose. Forever. Of course, we all know the Volunteers program has been on a slow descent for several years. Meanwhile Alabama, Florida and Georgia, LSU have been talking about how to win championships. Maybe he peaked 10 years ago, when Spurrier's Gators were king: Then Fulmer won back-to-back SEC championships (1997 and 1998). Back then UT took a backseat to nobody, but the Gators. UT fans say the loss of David Cutcliffe, Fulmer's longtime offensive coordinator, who is now the head coach at Duke, made a huge impact. But teams lose assistants all the time. Was Cutcliffe that good?